Opposing Viewpoints – Christianity and Politics

Welcome friends I’m Will Whitfield and I
wanted to talk with you briefly about when Christianity meets politics. Now I
know that can be a very hot topic and people can discuss and debate about it
for hours and hours, but I just want to quickly leave you with a few thoughts.
You know we live in a hyper politicized society where any subject can become an
ugly debate real fast and media and social media in general are some of the
tools that are used to make the culture toxic and divisive. And a lot of times,
people that are verbally professing to be Christians, they can do and say things
in the name of Christianity but it’s really about their political ideology.
And that can be really damaging because it can cause people to view Christianity
negatively. When somebody is really acting in a way as opposite of the of
the Christian faith before I go any further I just wanted to say that it is
important and it’s in monastic scripture that Christians be good citizens and
that really means that no Christians should be involved in politics
in general and do things to benefit their nation that de living in and
perform their civic duties such as voting and jury duty and things like
that but with that being said the issue is that a lot of times people are
motivated by political ideology whether they’re on the left
yeah that’s should be your left my right your the left or the right and claim
that what you’re doing and saying is in the name of Christianity the truth is
that sometimes a political ideology can become a religion in itself and yet
sometimes even an idol you know political ideologies that no national
pride you know these things are fine but when it comes to their religion and Idol
and their overall thing that leads their lives that’s when
is not acceptable and it’s poisonous to one’s life and people around them and
the people they come in contact with so people have a political world view that
is lot of times is motivated by fear and so preservation whereas the Christian
faith is motivated by love and self-sacrifice because Jesus Christ
loved us and sacrificed himself for us when I say political world view or was a
world view a world view is basically just the way a personal individual sees
and thinks about the world around them anything to look at they look at and
think about they have immediate thoughts and ideas about it when they first look
at it know someone has an apple some somebody might hate apples for some
reason and when you say Apple they have bad thoughts in their head immediately
for whatever reason someone else does it’s a lover of food and loves all food
seasoned Apple and they stay well how kind of eat the Apple as quickly as
possible so that’s their world view on Apple’s a more relevant approach that
uses more relevant a example is let’s use a homeless person or a poor poor
person now you don’t know that person at all I don’t know the background don’t
know how to got in this situation they are in right now you see them and a
person has a worldview and they’re going to assume certain things about that
person based on their own experiences and things they’ve been taught and
they’re on their own life yeah that’s how their world view is form they go
have a certain pain of that person but will they even get to know them that’s
how human beings work now I want to use some generalization so bear with me
these are kind of stereotypical if I’m on just using it to make an example
someone on the left the political spectrum it’s gonna look at that poor
person and say hey the economy was bad you know the system failed them
corporations are greedy the CEOs are greedy and those things call that person
to be out of a job and that’s why they’re poor
that’s why they’re disadvantaged sewing on the right of the political spectrum
may say that this person lack personal responsibility and that’s why they are
without a job they need to go out and get another job and you do think that’s
a better skills to to better to get a better job
they’d be constantly employable things like that I’m not here to say you the
ones who read it wrong and either one could be true for a particular
individual a lot of times you don’t get to know a person in any situation that’s
why we sometimes can catch judgment on somebody about really getting to know
them on the other hand someone with a Christian worldview and the Christian
mindset may say you know what this is a person in need we need to go ahead and
address this need and then you know find out more about this person figure out
why they’re in this situation build that person up to make them into a better
person and get them to a better position in life and and directing guide them in
the way they need to go so that can be a difference there of having a Christian
in my view you know a Christian worldview rather so we gotta know
whether you’re a Christian and lean left or right we got to remember that God’s
ways I’m not always so what he wants to do may not be what we may think to do
throughout our interestings are through our worldviews so we always got to be
led by the Holy Spirit when a person is professes to be a Christian but they
consistently do things that are opposite of Scripture and opposite of what we
find in the Bible people that are critical or people that are not
Christians are going to say that they’re hypocrite and when a person is a
hypocritical or one hypocrite in a particular culture and of a particular
faith someone made a planet hypocrite label to the entire body of Christ that
they see around them and that can be dangerous because they’re big city to
make disciples for Jesus Christ and to share the gospel with other people
when someone assumes that you’re gonna be a hypocrite before you open your
mouth you know Christians are never going to be perfect and that’s not we’re
saying here we don’t say that they never make a mistake they never do something
that that is opposite of what scripture says because we’re human and we’re and
we have a sinful nature but a Christian should always be come closer and closer
to Christ as life goes on and not further and further away so and it’s a
lifelong journey so we’re never arrived there but we should be making steps to
get there so we should be led by the Holy Spirit and not necessarily by a
political leader or political ideology and social medium memes so those are the
things that are forming your thoughts on daily basis you know you need to really
reflect on what is forming your worldview and les filles your thoughts
more than anything else as you wake up every day so what should a Christian do
well a Christian should study watch and pray your journey and your faith is a
lifelong journey as I’ve just said and a lot of it comes from reading scriptures
reading the Bible and seeing how those things apply to your life your daily
life if you’re watching this video it’s more than likely that the Bible wasn’t
written in the language that’s native to you or it’s definitely not part of the
culture that you’re in right now so you know anytime you have something that’s
taken from one language to another language and from one culture to another
culture a lot of ideas and words are lost the connotation and denotation of
words change and sometimes you only have a word money mean heavy translation when
you translate it it might be the idea might not be able to might not be a word
for it in English so it’s more than open up up I want you reading the words and
your native language is a deep dive into every word in the scripture and
understanding the context that it was written in and why was written who was
written to and understanding how that can apply to your life so that’s what
you should use always be studying also always watch the culture around you the
society around you whether it’s directly around you or through the media and
being watchful for things that cause people that to become no further come
further and further away from Christ and what you can do to impact that also
always be prayerful every day about your own words and your own actions or your
words and actions something that causes people to come closer to Christ or fall
further away well hopefully these things are food for thought you can reflect on
them and then they’ve been helpful for you let me know in the comments below
please be civil with each other definitely LIKE this video and subscribe
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thank you and have a blessed day so I didn’t really understand them well
how many y’all know the Lord I always leave you a ham in the bush is that
right

2 COMMENTS

Thanks for watching. Politics and Religion are usually the no-nos of public discussion, but I thought it was important to highlight some of the effects the two are having on our society. Some people may describe it as cultural Christianity vs Biblical Christianity.